


It Runs in the Family

by kisahawklin



Series: Werecats [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, The Losers (2010)
Genre: Author's Favorite, M/M, Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-13
Updated: 2012-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-29 11:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/319196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all the gin joints in all the world... what are the odds his cousin would turn up?</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Runs in the Family

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently my head-canon really is that John Sheppard and Jake Jensen are cousins. Taken to its logical conclusion, I imagine this fic will end up with adventure fic with both teams and lots of awesomeness. Hopefully that will wait until I finish my other obligations, though.

John can smell him from across the room – and no one is more surprised to see his cousin here than he is. Jensen perks up too – if he were in cat-form, he'd have perked his ears up, John can almost see it.

"Of all the gin joints in all the world," Jensen says, smiling his huge smile full of teeth. He's with someone – and John hadn't known _that_ ran in the family too, because he can smell Jensen all over the wiry, long-haired guy next to him.

Jensen's sizing up Rodney too, and raising an eyebrow in John's direction.

"Cougar," Jensen says, stepping back to give John a full view – or maybe Cougar, he can't tell. "This is my cousin, John Sheppard."

Cougar – and John doesn't even blink at the nickname, it's obvious he's as military as Jensen and John both are – nods his head, putting a hand on the cowboy hat that's there, but not really lifting it off his head.

"And Rodney," John says, pulling Rodney by the arm from where he has been obliviously ordering drinks, "this is my cousin, Jake Jensen."

"Pleasure, I'm sure," Rodney says distractedly, going back to giving the bartender a lecture about citrus in his drink. He does a double take and looks at Jake again. "So your hair really does do that naturally?"

Jake grins; John rolls his eyes. "Told you so," John says. Cougar smiles. If John didn't know better, he'd think Cougar's nickname was hiding something in plain sight, but he can't smell a cat on him.

"How about dinner?" Jake asks. "We're here on R&R for a couple days" – and John knows damn well he means reconnaissance and resupplying – "on our benefactor's dime, so we can treat."

"No offense to your benefactor," Rodney says disdainfully, and Cougar bristles a little, "but we've been out of the country for a while, and I am not going anywhere near a restaurant that's less than four stars."

"Rodney," John chides, but Rodney's not even close to done. John should have known.

"My treat, of course, because I've been told I'm notoriously picky, and if I'm going to drag you all along, the least I can do is pay for it."

Cougar settles back into his chair, not smiling, but not looking like he might kill Rodney with a well-placed glare.

"Sweet," Jake says. "I never say no to a free meal, especially not one that comes with a maitre d'."

"Well, I hope you have better clothes than that," Rodney says, and Cougar bristles again – damn, John is going to have to tell Rodney to watch his mouth – "because there's probably a dress code."

Jake laughs, and the sound seems to set Cougar at ease, which is a plus in John's book. He likes Cougar. Someone needs to watch out for Jake – he's so damn reckless – and Cougar seems like he's more than up for the job. "I think we can manage," Jake says.

"Well, I hope you can manage in the next hour and a half," Rodney says, "because I have reservations for nine o'clock."

~~~

"I don't like him," Cougar says, and Jensen just laughs.

"I know. But he's okay – Shep's told me about him before. Saved their asses. Wicked smart. And I don't think they were sleeping together back then."

Cougar starts, sitting up straighter in the chair. Jensen loves that he can still occasionally get one up on Cougar. "Yep, I'd say for maybe a year or so, now. And he knows about the cat thing."

Cougar's eyebrows do something complicated, but eventually settle down into deeply distrustful territory. "I don't like him."

"I know," Jensen says. "But I hear he grows on you."

~~~

"Your cousin is surprisingly well-muscled," Rodney says, just to see John's reaction.

John's head pokes out of his undershirt, hair sticking straight up immediately, and looks at Rodney peevishly. "He takes after his dad. I look like my mom."

"But you both have the Sheppard hair." Rodney glances at it, like a sentient being on John's head. He finishes buttoning up his shirt and holds up two ties for John to peruse.

"It's Anderson hair, actually," John says, pointing at the blue one. "That comes from my mom's side of the family, too."

Rodney lets that sink in while he knots the tie, watching his reflection in the mirror. "I think the skinny guy might knife me over dinner."

John rolls his eyes, throwing on his own dress shirt and buttoning up. "Cougar, and I'm sure he's just not used to you yet. He and Jake are fucking."

 _Just fucking?_ Rodney thinks. He wonders if that's how John would describe them, if asked. "Fucking."

"Among other things," John says, tucking the tails of his shirt in and buttoning up. "They've been together for a while. He knows about Cat."

"Cat?" Rodney asks. "So he…" He doesn't know what to call John's lunar excursions, so he settles for a handwave. "…on the full moon too?"

"Yeah," John says simply.

Rodney hands John his black tie – he knows John would never wear one with a little color. It was kind of nice to see his cousin wearing a bright yellow t-shirt. Good to know that the black-only wardrobe isn't among the things that John inherited from his shapeshifting family.

John laughs as he puts the tie under his collar. "Jake calls his inner cat, Cat."

"It has a name?" Rodney blinks.

"Yeah," John says, checking his tie in the mirror. "Kind of like Princess."

Rodney can't help a grin. He wishes he had known it was John, back when he'd given the nickname. He supposes it's just as funny either way.

"Jake always had a name for it, kept it separate from himself. I never did. Until you and your Princess crack."

Rodney can't help laughing. "You _are_ a princess! I've never met such a standoffish cat."

John rolls his eyes. "Play nice tonight. If Cougar does decide to knife you, I'm not sure I'm fast enough to do anything about it."

"Some bodyguard you are," Rodney says, but he decides he's going to sit as far away from Cougar as possible.

~~~

Cougar has never liked dressing up. It reminds him of church when he was a boy. It never felt like him, only a skin he put on over the top, one that was for show and not tell. Doing it for dinner seems even more oppressive, like there is some kind of –

"Cougs, ease up, man," Jensen says as they wind their way to their table.

Cougar nods, thinking about the gun he left behind in the drawer of the nightstand. At least he still has his knife.

"He's not that bad, I promise."

"We'll see," Cougar answers, and eyes Rodney McKay as he decides which seat to take. Shep and Jensen grin at each other – Jensen's wide and boyish, Shep's thin and sarcastic – and sit next to each other. McKay swallows, taking a seat next to Shep and shuffling his chair away from Cougar's. He's smart, Cougar has to admit.

Jensen and McKay carry the conversation, and Cougar sizes Shep up under the avalanche of words. He keeps an eye on McKay, cuts him off when he goes too far out of bounds, stops him with something painful – kick to the shin, maybe – when he calls Jensen stupid. Shep nods at Cougar and says, "Hazard of being a genius," and gives him an apologetic twitch of a smile.

Jensen doesn't even catch what went on, just goes back to his original point, something about encryption and data and McKay looks like his head is going to explode, but he doesn't call Jensen stupid again.

Shep's a watcher too – he seems invested in the conversation, throwing out tidbits here and there and giving his few genuine grins to Jensen, but he meets and holds Cougar's gaze for long moments and Cougar feels like he can trust this guy. Besides being smart and a good enough leader to manage McKay without McKay noticing, he seems happy to see his cousin, and Jensen obviously worships Shep like the hero he is in Jensen's eyes.

Cougar is actually grateful for McKay's snobbishness when he orders dinner for the four of them. Cougar didn't understand half the menu and probably would have had Jensen pick something for him if he'd been given a choice.

McKay is the only one who drinks the wine, and he smiles more as the evening goes on and he and Jensen bond over DC comics. Shep rolls his eyes at the Batman references flying by and Cougar can't help a grin.

Shep doesn't try to ask him questions and McKay doesn't bother – though he does speak _for_ Cougar sometimes, and those are the only times that Jensen's face crumples up into an annoyed frown, but McKay could not be more oblivious to the rest of the world if he were nailed in a coffin. Cougar doesn't mind, they're not the sort of things that bother him, too general and mostly off the mark. He doesn't think much of soldiers – except for Shep, clearly – and Cougar doesn't care much as long as he doesn't have to prove McKay wrong anytime soon.

Once the entrees come and the conversation slows, Cougar lets down his guard enough to enjoy the food. He generally eats anything edible within reach, and he's trained himself not to notice taste. It gets in the way of keeping yourself from starving. This is good food, though, and not good like Jolene's mac and cheese or Clay's 5 bean chili, this is _colorful_. He chews thoughtfully and he can feel his dislike of McKay slipping, just a little.

Then McKay orders him the deepest, darkest chocolate ganache Cougar has ever tasted and when he gets the surprising crunchy bits of crystallized ginger Cougar thinks, _maybe he_ does _grow on you_.

McKay doesn't blink at the bill, which Cougar knows was over five hundred dollars (Shep and Jensen both decided on cocktails halfway through the appetizers and are both more than tipsy), and Cougar watches him write down a twenty-five percent tip in neat, cramped handwriting.

Once they get outside, McKay hands him the keys to their SUV. "You're the only truly sober one," he says, climbing in to the passenger seat. Jensen and Shep climb in the back, leaning on each other and laughing. Cougar knows there will be singing on the car ride to their hotel. What he didn't know is that McKay would join in, with a nicely tuned tenor.

"Hope you liked it," McKay says to Cougar as he takes the ticket from the hotel valet. He smiles tentatively. "We can let you guys treat for breakfast, if you want. Waffles are waffles, and it doesn't take four stars to have a great breakfast."

"Okay," Cougar says, slipping himself under Jensen's arm to keep him upright and steady as they walk to the elevators together.

Shep and McKay get off at the fifth floor, and as soon as the doors shut, Jensen asks, "What do you think of him now?"

Cougar doesn't smile, but he does say, "I don't hate him."

Jensen grins and kisses Cougar on the mouth, eager and a little sloppy. "Told you so."

Cougar shakes his head and shuts Jensen up with another kiss.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Cougar as Cougar](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3190955) by [mific](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mific/pseuds/mific)




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